One of the primary functions of personal care absorbent articles is to retain and absorb body exudates such as urine, fecal material, blood, and menses. Along these lines, a desired attribute of personal care absorbent articles is to minimize the leakage of such exudates from the absorbent article. To assist in achieving this function, absorbent articles can include leg containment flaps in the crotch region of the absorbent article. These containment flaps can be designed to provide a gasket, or seal, against a wearer's skin to prevent leakage of the exudates from the absorbent article, as well as to contain the exudates in a specific area of the absorbent article such that the exudates can be properly distributed, further contained, and/or absorbed by various components of the absorbent article.
Various configurations of containment flaps and methods of forming containment flaps are known. For example, one common configuration is to have a containment flap on each side of the longitudinal axis of the absorbent article by providing a length of material with one or more elastic strands contained in the material, the length of material extending substantially along the length of the absorbent article. The elastic strand(s) can adhere to the strip of material to gather each containment flap in the crotch region of the absorbent article when the absorbent article is in a relaxed condition such that the material stands up or extends away from the absorbent article. The top edge of each vertical containment flap is configured to contact the wearer's skin along the length of the containment flap to form a seal against exudates. However, the limited area of contact between the top edge of each vertical containment flap along the wearer's skin can provide less than desirable gasketing properties in some circumstances
While other configurations of containment flaps are known that increase the area of contact with the wearer's skin, many have only been theorized and present manufacturing complexities and/or packaging drawbacks not initially realized. As an example, other containment flap systems for absorbent articles that provide increased contact area with the wearer's skin do not address packaging concerns such as fold lines in the absorbent article and the interactions of such fold lines with the functioning of the containment flaps to contain body exudates. These prior containment flap system also do not address how to use packaging fold lines as a way to selectively alter the shape of the containment flaps to provide further gasketing benefits with the wearer's skin.
Thus, there is a need for an absorbent article having containment flaps which can provide an improved gasket with the wearer's skin, yet still provide reduced irritation on the wearer's skin. There is also a need for a method of producing such containment flaps. Additionally, there is a need for an absorbent article can be packaged with fold lines that are selectively positioned so as to fully utilize the performance characteristics of the containment flaps and/or to selectively alter the shape of a portion of the containment flaps to provide enhanced gasketing properties with the wearer's skin.